


Seven Last Days of Decay

by Rowwlet



Category: 7 Days to Die (Video Game)
Genre: Help, Horror, I Don't Even Know, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, Post-Apocalypse, Survival Horror, Wilderness, Wilderness Survival, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23012062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowwlet/pseuds/Rowwlet
Summary: Titles suck and I'm bad at them.Sue me.It's about zombies and surviving.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

02:48am, Day XX, Diersville, Arizona.

Finally, it had finally found the source of the smell, that enticing, bloody scent it had been following for hours now. It once was a buck, or used to be, now that it had been picked over by scavengers and left in the Arizona summer's sun, it was a husk with bits of fur beginning to sink against the bones. Letting out a guttural snarl, he sunk to his knees and tore into the soft underbelly, pulling out a fistful of the left over entrails. Then a shrill, horrible noise filled the air. Pulling his face out of the buck's gore with a hiss, he looked up just in time to see the moving blur of something sprinting towards the edge of town. Clambering to his feet with a shriek, he began running towards the shape, his movements erratic, almost excited. And with the sudden interruption of the night's normal silence, the others in the town stir and soon a hoard of undead had begun to assemble in front of a house, tearing at the walls and the doors between them and the living being inside, shattering windows and climbing over each other to be the firsts to get to source. 

"Shit, shit shit shit.." Melanie had never been so mad in her life, not at her parent's sudden, nasty divorce, not when her boyfriend left, when she found out she had been denied her scholarship, not ever as much as she was now. Mad at the fact that she had lost track of time looking for supplies, mad that she hadn't noticed the sun sinking into the nearby lake until it was nearly the twilight, but the biggest peeve she had towards herself right now was accidentally bumping into that small red Honda, parked right in front of the house she had decided to hide in for the night. Yes, she had seen it, even made a mental note to search in it when she left, but somehow, some way, she managed to bump it just right, making the old car's shrill alarm start. By some weird, bad luck, this car had been left alone for four long, miserable months, no one, alive or dead, had bumped it or tried to go through it, leaving it for the brunette to accidentally bump it with her bag. 'BAM' Letting out another string of whispered curses, she ducked further down behind the kitchen's cabinets, trying to make herself as small as possible. There were too many, she could count at least eight of the dead pursuers before she had slammed the door shut, locking it and shoving the old brown couch in front of it and heading to the back of the house. They were banging on the doors, the windows, even just the front of the house. Eventually, they were going to get in and she only had enough bullets to take out three if she could manage head shots in the dark. There had been a gun in the last house's bedside table, but no extra bullets. With a sigh, she pressed her back against the cabinet, feeling tears threatening. She was completely trapped, it was hours before dawn and even if she could manage to get out of the house, she wouldn't be able to outrun them long. There was a loud crack of the front door splintering, she was running out of time. Then an idea, a stupid, crazy idea came into her mind. The attic.. she had seen a tree poking around the corner of the backyard.. it may have been tall enough to reach near the house, near enough to a window. If it was, she could perhaps climb out and make a run for it, maybe. Even if it wasn't, it may be safer to get higher, maybe she could wait them out. "What if.." she murmured, taking a deep breath, "what if we trying pulling a bad move to fix another?" Nodding to herself, she jumped up and peeked about the corner, from the sounds of the wood splintering and the glass, she didn't have long. Steeling herself, she gripped the heavy bag on her shoulder and ran towards the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

03:18am, Day XX, Diersville, Arizona.

'CRACK'

Melanie flinched as she bolted past the front door, turning just in time to see one of the undeads' hand begin to protrude from the splintering pieces. "Let's hope this works...." she murmured mildly, hefting the weighted pack on her shoulder as she quickly climbed the stairs. Pausing once she reached the top, she looked about, two closed doors were on either side of her, the stairs to her back and another two doors along the darkened hall to her left. "There has to be a way into the attic.. Whe-" her thoughts were cut off suddenly with the sounds of the door below finally crumbling under the weight of her pursuers, the screeching and growls suddenly deafening without the wood between them. Mentally letting out a string of curses, she quickly started down the hall, looking above her for a pull down ladder, a sign, anything to give her an idea to where the damned attic's entrance was. They were shuffling around on the first floor, probably fixated on the spot where she had been crying in the kitchen, where they had last heard her, but soon they'd start coming up the stairs. They'd come up the stairs and she'd be trapped. Shaking herself out of her panicking thoughts, she found herself at the last door. Looking over her shoulder, she quietly moved through, shutting and locking it behind herself and sagging against it with a whimper. "Melly, you're running out of time, don't just sit there.." She took a deep, shuddering breath, giving herself a moment to think, looking about to disarrayed room. It had once been the master bedroom, going off of the tall four posted bed and large wooden armoires, the room smelled of dust, the major cities had been the first to be evacuated months ago, many people just left everything but some clothes, maybe some cash behind before when the infection began ravaging through. Looking over the room, she stopped at the closet door. Taking another deep breath though her nose, she opened the door quickly, pointing the gun as she did in case there was a surprise inhabitant. Nothing, just ink colored darkness, faintly lit by a light coming from the boarded up window, she sighed with relief, starting and turning towards the door as the sound of footsteps began to creep up the stairs. Wide-eyed, she moved into the closet quickly, closing the door behind herself. "Definitely the master bedroom.." It was definitely an added on walk-in, there was a small amount of light coming from the busted street lights outside and she could barely make out the shelves lined with clothes and a gun safe towards to other side of the room... Letting out a sharp breath from between her teeth, she could've danced at the sight, there, sitting next to the gun safe.. was the string to a pull down set of stairs..

She had made it to the attic. Clambering up the wooden stairs, she pulled the door shut behind her. Laying down on the dusty floor, she sighed, still shaking from the adrenaline. "I can probably just wait them out here.." she murmured, putting her head on her arm and looking at her watch. It was 3:38 in the morning.. dawn wasn't for a couple hours and she was exhausted.. Sitting up, she reached into the large bag she had been carrying and pulled out a granola bar, a bottle of water she had filled up in the sink a few houses ago and a dusty, large sweater she had found. Folding it up, she put the article down as a pillow and laid back, munching on the stale snack bar. "I can't keep making mistakes like this.." she grumbled aloud, still mad about butt-bumping the Honda that caused this whole problem, "everything has gone to shit.. you can't keep fucking up like this Mel.." Giving the room a good look now, she decided it would be better to hide here for the remainder of the night, the tree she had remembered was on the opposite end of the room then the window, she peeked through it's dust-caked panes to see the front of the house and the road instead of the backyard like she had hoped. This meant that the only ways out from where she was would be to go through the windows on the second floor, hoping hoping that she didn't hurt or cripple herself in the fall (unlikely), go back down the stairs, into the first level (which she assumed by now was full of those walking corpses) and getting out without a scratch (also unlikely), or staying here, which for now seemed to be the best option. She groaned, kicking off her boots and laying down, setting her watch to wake her up in an hour. It'd been a few days since she slept and it was beginning to weigh down on her. Rolling on to her side, she stared at the pulled up stairs, thinking about what had all transpired these past few months.

There was no warning for the end of the world, really.. by the time the CDC had figured out what was happening, before Governor had declared a state of emergency, it was too late, too many patients thought to have what was being referred to as the "Crimson Flu" had been sent to the outlying towns' hospitals once the cities' were overfilled with the infected. Those infected died horribly, painfully, whether from their organs failing, from the fever or from the internal hemorrhaging, the infected would die and then, within the hour usually, they would come back. It had all happened so fast, the roads were blocked, there was no way out of the state after the army came and barricaded all of the roads out. The planes were grounded, trains stopped, highways packed.. eventually those in their cars would get out and were attacked by the hordes, the airports were mass graves to those who were trying to escape. She hadn't been to check through the train stations yet.. they were too close to the city and the city was probably the worst place to find yourself in something like this, considering that most of the population has gone and become the living dead. Melanie had been in class when the chaos had started, leave it to Mr. Broughs to still want to hold his accounting class when the news was telling people to stay inside and avoid being on the road. They had began to appear on campus, first only a handful at a time, then suddenly, they were everywhere.. she had cut through the science department's maintenance hallways with several of her classmates, going towards the gym and out towards the dormitories. There had been five of them that night, Denny, one of the school's too abundant frat boys, Lauren, who Melanie knew nothing about other then she hated her for popping her gum right behind her ear for the last semester, Jessie, who she had a few other classes with, her younger sister, Yoko, who was going to be starting next semester, and herself. Everyone had tried their phones, tried to call their loved ones, their significant others, the police... anyone and everyone they could, trying to see who was alive, what they were supposed to do now. There was no service, all lines were either busy or unable to connect.. 

They were stuck hiding in one of the third floor's dorms, all of them sleeping in shifts, taking turns sneaking out to the other dorms to look for food, water, any kind of supplies. Lauren had been the first to go, after being stuck in the room for three days, she had had enough of hiding, saying that the government had to have set up evacuation routes by now, that they were wasting time, they were all going to die here if they stayed. Taking a bag of food and medical supplies with her, the blonde shoved past Denny and out the door, screaming at them that if they didn't move soon, those shamblers were just going to bust in eventually anyways. She had made it to the ground floor then out to the parking lot before they noticed her. From the third floor's window, it was hard to tell if she had tripped or if one of the dead had managed to get a hold of her leg.. but they had seen the small group tear her apart, to hear her screams as they started ripping her open while she tried to break free. They couldn't do anything, they all watched helplessly, Yoko burying her face in to her sister's arm and covering her ears to drown out the sound, Denny was white-knuckling the bat they had found and Melanie found herself peeling away from the window quickly to vomit in the small kitchenette's sink. Coughing as she straightened back up, Melanie looked over to the others and sighed, they were going to have to work together to get out, that much was beginning to become very clear. It was hours before any of them could speak without a small tremble in their voice, then a few more hours before Denny decided that it would be best to run outside and grab the forgotten bag. He had hardly made it to the parking lot before the dead started towards him, joined now by a fresh, blood-stained blonde.

Yoko was next, though it hadn't been the dead that time. Denny and her had gone to the first floor of the building, east wing, where the laundry rooms, commissary and the coffee shop was to look for food. Something that was only supposed to take a few hours, yet nightfall came and Jessie had began to worry once her little sister hadn't returned, so once the sun was out, they had gone out to search for the two. It didn't take long to find them, there was blood everywhere and once they opened the door, you could smell something foul over the damp, molded laundry that had been left. Denny was sitting in a chair, looking blankly at the body that had once been Yoko, he says there had been an argument, that she was going to open the bay doors and let the dead in. So he had tried to stop her, saying that she had struggled against him and in that struggle, she fell, breaking her neck. Jessie had rushed in, turning Yoko over and shaking her, her mouth and nose had blood coming out of them, screaming at Den, asking him why she was wet, if she had broken her neck, why was her clothing soaked from the chest up. The smell of vomit hung in the air in a thick blanket, covering the scents of old soap and mildewing clothing. Denny never moved from his chair, he just looked over to the sisters and hung his head before looking over to Melanie, "Mel, there was nothing I could do, she would've gotten us all killed, I had to.." he looked at her pleadingly, gesturing to a large industrial sink, there were footprints, scattered articles of clothing and trash near it, the smell was coming from there, there were several hand prints on the edge of the yellow plastic's lip, "Jess, I'm sorry, I really am, I had to, I ha-" There was a choking sound, a glint of metal, several seconds stretched out to eons before Melanie completely processed what had happened. Jessie stood over Denny, the razor blade that was used to open boxes of supplies was sticking out of his wind pipe, his mouth agape, opening and closing a few more times, his head tilting back to look up at the blue-nette standing next to him. Turning her head to Melanie, she pulled the blade from the male's neck and waved it in her direction, "Go.. get out of here Mel, grab what you can and leave.." she said, her face strangely calm despite her welling eyes. Putting her hands up, the brunette took a small step forward, "It's okay Jess, it'll be okay, we.. we should stick together. I understand why you did that but.. we have to stay together, okay?" she was trembling, terrified to move towards the other female, but just as much so to turn her back to them. Jess sobbed, waving the box cutter again, "No, it's not okay, it'll never be okay again.. you're not a bad person Mel, just.. I don't want you to die.. so.." she sniffled, using her arm to wipe at her face, gouging a piece of her chin with the blade, "you have to go, okay?" Moving across the room, she reached over to the locks of the door, the door that led outside, to the hot Arizona daylight. "No! No no no, Jess, please," Melanie begged, taking a step back, stumbling backwards on a box and landing on her rump, helplessly watching the first few hands begin to press and push against the door, hearing the pounding as they began to hammer against the metal, the glass shattering, grabbing Jessie and pulling her back to the door..

"Gah!" Waking up with a start, Melanie gasped, sitting straight up, nearly smacking her head on a low piece of the ceiling. Panting hard, she looked about frantically, the events all coming back in a haze as she began to calm down. She was in an attic of some house in Diersville, she had set off a car alarm and alerted a horde, they were in the house, she had escaped here to hide out until dawn.. Looking at her watch, she sighed quietly, she had dozed off for about two hours. "Damned thing.." she grumbled at the device. She hadn't set a alarm for the next two hours, she had set one for 2am by mistake, not that she really knew how she had done that, she had found the it in one of the other houses and thought it'd be useful. After all of these months, it had taken just a little while to figure out that the nights were the most dangerous, the dead seemed to be more active, more alert.. and to make matters worse, they were faster during the night, somehow. There was no point in trying to figure out the science behind it, that's not what she had gone to school for. Flopping back down with a sigh, she laid there a moment before deciding it was time to head back to her base. "It's a new day.. I should go drop off what I have before I go out again," she yawned, stretching her arms and legs out stiffly before standing and looking at the pulled up stairs for a moment, debating on how exactly she was going to get out. On one hand, the best case scenario is that all of the undeads had already shuffled back outside, towards to heat of the day and the place was clear. Worst case, they had all decided to stand at the door of the bedroom, if the door was still there and she hadn't slept through them breaking it down to get to her, and were waiting just on the other side with her having no escape but to go through the 2nd floor window and hope to land in a bush. But the reality is, there were probably a few in the house still, probably at least two or three. If that was the case, she could sneak past them and out of the open (broken, she corrected) front door. She pondered the options for a moment, looking about the room. She thought about all of the clothes and the gun safe that was in the closet below her feet, if she could get it open, there may be something useful in there, but getting it open requires a key or a passcode, something she did not have time to look for if the place has any shamblers in there. Finally deciding on her actions, she slowly pushed the stairs down, sliding down the wooden boards without much trouble and poking her head out of the closet. The place looked even more disastrous in the sunlight, clothes and knick-knacks thrown around, drawers pulled out and generally the ever present layer of dust on everything in sight. The door was still intact, much to her relief, and she paused for a moment to mark the house down on her map. There was a hiding space and running water, she'd have to keep that in mind for next time... just in case. Putting the map away, she poked her head out of the door carefully, ready to slam it closed again at any sign of movement. Nothing, not a single sound or body. There were footprints in the dust, hers and a few others, meaning they had come up here last night. Crouching down, she carefully crept through the hall to the top of the stairs, 'Shit,' she hissed, seeing the tattered pant legs of a shambler. "Well.... it's only one so far, you can out run it if you.. double shit," she grumbled, just as another pair of legs came into view. With a sigh, she hefted the bag on her back, pulling it's straps tighter. She was going to have to make a run for it, if she could make it to the edge of town, she could lose them in the corn field of the nearby farm, then it'd be a breeze to get back to her hideout. Creeping down the stairs, she made it all the way to the bottom before the two rotting men turned to her, finally noticing the small brunette. As they started towards her, she threw a rock at the nearest one, catching him in the head and causing him to stumble back, and headed for the door. Stumbling down the porch stairs, she ran into the middle of the street, crinkling her nose absently at the little red hatchback that had almost gotten her killed. "Okay, we're out, let's go home," she grinned, starting off in a brisk jog away from the two rotters as they groaned in protest from the door.


	3. Chapter 3

6:02am, Day XX, Navezgane

By the time she had made it through the dilapidated town, there was a decent group of around ten shamblers following. Thanks to the daylight, they were slow and easy to avoid, making it easy for the brunette to make it back to the main road, mentally noting the hospital on the way. After a few miles, the edges of a cornfield came into view, much to her relief. By this time, the last few of the corpses had finally lost interest, seeming to understand that there was just to much distance between them. Making a sharp turn into the tall stalks, she checked her watch hurriedly, the small compass on it confirming that she was heading Northwest. "Just a little bit farther," she huffed, slowing down to barely a jog as she adjusted her pack again. The damn thing was near bursting with canned goods, bottles of water and other supplies. She had even found some clothes and a couple more books on surviving the wilds, something she was beginning to wish she had researched before.

Finally finding the edge of the other side of the cornfield, she stopped to rest against a shade tree, the rough bark biting into her shoulder as she leaned the bulk of her weight into it. Even with that short nap in the attic, she had been up for almost three days straight. She only had four more days until that nightmarish moon appeared again. That meant she had a few more days to stock more supplies up, then spend the rest fixing and fortifying her base. They didn't get in last time, but every seven day, the night brought a horrible red fog that covered the skies and seemed to put the dead into a feeding frenzy. No matter how she covered her tracks, no matter how quiet she stayed in the darkness, they seemed to find her, hordes of the dead would show up, making the crew from last night look like nothing. She shuddered at the thought, there had been so many last time, they had torn down a good chunk of the gate and began clawing at the concrete barriers between them and the courtyard. If it weren't for the sun beginning to come up... 'Don't think about it.' Shaking her head, she pushed off the tree, it was better not to dwell on the 'what ifs'.

Pressing on, her gait became a bit slower as the terrain turned into slopes and wet grass. Even though it was still spring, the sheer heat of Arizona's climate was already beginning to settle in the air, promising for another sweltering day. After trudging a few more miles, the metallic tip of a cell tower. As she came to the crest of a hill, she stopped, unconsciously smirking to herself. She had found an abandoned cell tower a week or so after leaving the college dorms, the heavy metal gate had been padlocked closed, a pair of large SUVs adding to the mismatched outer barricade of extra slabs of concrete, sheets of metal and other heavy miscellaneous objects. She had only managed to get into the courtyard beyond it by climbing a nearby tree that had a decent sized branch, shimmying over and jumping down to the dumpster below. This method was proving to be difficult today, while hefting a large bag and her tired body, but she managed, hopping down to the large dumpster and moving around the building.

She clambered up the small set of stairs where she kept the door locked with a numeral code after finding it originally unlocked, wide open in fact. Stepping into the small space, she dropped the bag on to the floor with a relieved sigh. The tower's maintenance office was a simple three room building, there was a large room with the controls, valves, workbench and other equipment for keeping the tower running, so she thought anyways.. Off to the left, there was a small bathroom, complete with a stand-up shower and even a few towels. Then there was the best and last room, the singular employee's break room, complete with an AC unit, bookshelves, a sink and small one burner stove, microwave, a mini fridge and, right now her most desired part, a small cot that she had placed a plethora of oversized pillows and blankets on for comfort. "We made it back," she said aloud, the empty space feeling almost cozy after the night she had.

Melanie smiled, just a year ago this place would have seemed like a dump, even compared to her shared dorm. But for now, it was the oasis in middle of the desert. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she got to work putting canned foods away in the cabinet below the sink, bottles of water or juice into the tiny fridge, snacks and candy into a nearby plastic container, then placing all of the new books into a pile beside her cot. It was always in this order, something static amongst the chaos. After a bit of deliberation and a huff, she flopped on to the piles of soft and kicked off her boots. "68 _hours_ , I've been up for almost 68 hours.. I need sleep.." she sighed, wiggling out of her jeans and situating herself amongst the pillows and blankets as she fiddled with the watch again, spending a bit more time to figure out how to set an alarm for noon before laying back, there was much to do, but everyone needs to rest sometimes, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter is, like, obnoxiously long.  
> I probably should have been a bit more liberal with the editing and cutting some stuff out, but eh, we're here.


End file.
